Dear johnatg-ga;
You posed a good question. Like you, I am a fan of nostalgic
television and I tend to gravitate toward older shows that are
wholesome and not so complicated. One of the reasons why these
programs are so few and far between is ?syndication? ? or better yet,
?money?.
TV Syndication is the distribution of a TV programs to broadcast TV
stations, and cable and satellite systems. In the old days when
television ads didn?t generated the billions of dollars they do today,
30 minute shows like the ones you mentioned were scripted to allow for
about three minutes of ad time. As the years have gone by hundreds of
millions of people are tuned in to their televisions at any given
second of the day or night, which makes the consumer base for
advertising a lucrative thing indeed. Because of that television
programs in today?s age are written to allow for six minutes of ad
time (or more if the show is a big ticket). Why does this matter? It?s
simple, in many cases the shows simply don?t fit the time slots, which
is why you see many older programs on late at night or in the wee
hours of the morning when there is less demand for ad time.
Have you ever watch a ?marathon? of some old program like THE ANDY
GRIFFITH SHOW and noticed at the very end that there is a final scene
that you don?t remember ever seeing before? There is a reason for
this. When the show was new is allowed for 3 minutes of ad time. In
the old days there was one typically a final commercial break and the
show returned for another 2-3 minutes, aired the closing scene and
then rolled the credits. Today, however, the final scenes are edited
out to allow for more ad time to squeeze as many ads in as possible
(and wring as many commercial dollars out of the old show as
possible). More often than not the last scene you see in shows like
THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW and LEAVE IT TO BEAVER are not always the last
laugh. When stations buy a syndicated package of, say, 100 unedited
shows, they sometimes choose to show the program in its entirety
because it?s the ?show? itself that is the market draw and not
necessarily the ads time that makes the money. When older programs
appear in better time slots, it?s the ad time that makes the money and
not necessarily the show. See what I mean? These edited shows are
called ?syndication prints? and connoisseurs of old TV programming
(like you and me) hate them because we find them anticlimactic and
thus spoiled.
To put how important ad time is in television programming, the
American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) and the
Association of National Advertisers, Inc. (ANA) noted that WHEEL OF
FORTUNE once topped the list of commercial clutter in November 2001
with 21 minutes and 58 seconds of ad time and the syndicated program
FRASIER regularly aired over 17 minutes of commercials. The result was
a heavily edited show to make room for the necessary ads, a feat that
would render carefully scripted 24-minute sitcoms like ANDY GRIFFITH,
FATHER KNOWS BEST or DOBIE GILLIS simply unintelligible.
Beyond this, there are other syndication issues too. Some shows are
forever wrapped up in complicated legal ownership that prevent them
from being aired with such frequency that we commonly see them in such
numbers that would warrant an ?oldies? station. Of course, money
talks, and people like Ted Turner, who have considerably deep pockets,
can wrangle deals for old shows that many other stations with fewer
financial resources cannot. This accounts for why some channels like
TBS, TV Land, Nick at Nite, AMC and others can air some programs that
others simply can?t get, and if you?re not watching when the shows
come on, you simply miss out.
The rarity of old shows is also partly due to trends. Society?s
modern expectation of a certain amount of ?adult? material is in no
small way responsible for what we often DON?T see on television.
Reality concepts, violence, free language and risqué behaviors draw
high ratings. These attributes, in many demographic markets, is what
defines real entertainment, as such they, in turn, create enormously
lucrative ad opportunities whereas programs that do not offer these
things are not nearly as appealing, ratings wise.
Finally, with the hundreds of choices on pay-per-view, cable, and
satellite, older shows are often relegated to the filler slots or
alternative mediums like DVD nowadays. This creates a new form of
broadcast rights barrier that wasn?t an issue some twenty years ago.
Today if a company buys the rights to a program it would be silly for
them to compete with themselves by publishing the show on DVD for sale
on the retail market and also airing it on television for all to see
free of charge. Many times when a program finds it way to DVD (like
?77 Sunset Strip?, ?Maverick?,?F Troop?, etc) its days on television
are numbered at best, and at worst it enters into exile forever (or at
least until its retail sales fall off so badly that it becomes
targeted for filler fodder once again).
Hopefully these shows that we love will become cool again. But then
again I always thought Eisenhower jackets were quite dashing, so what
do I know? I?m afraid we may have a long wait on our hands if we?re
hoping for these shows to some back in style.
I hope you find that my answer exceeds your expectations. If you have
any questions about my research please post a clarification request
prior to rating the answer. Otherwise I welcome your rating and your
final comments and I look forward to working with you again in the
near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga ? Google Answers Researcher
INFORMATION SOURCES
USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2004-02-16-tv-dvds_x.htm
WIKIPEDIA
?SYNDICATION?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_syndication
AAAA/ANA ANNUAL STUDY SHOWS TV CLUTTER LEVELS UP ACROSS MOST DAYPARTS
http://www.ana.net/news/2002/02_14_02.cfm
SEARCH STRATEGY
SEARCH ENGINE USED:
Google ://www.google.com
SEARCH TERMS USED:
Television
Programming
Ratings
Commercial
Syndication
Syndicated |
,
0 Comments
)